Smith: Schoolteacher, charming young lad set to meet again

Bob Edmondson left a doctor’s appointment thinking of nothing medical, but of the kid he’d encountered in the waiting room.

As I mentioned the other day, Edmondson calls the boy, “the sweetest kid I have ever met.” The two of them spoke about a minute last month as they waited at Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa medical offices.

The lad briefly demonstrated to Edmondson, a veteran schoolteacher, the workings of his motorized wheelchair. The strangers hadn’t exchanged names when Edmondson was called into an exam room.

Afterward, he was aware of being so deeply moved by the boy that he felt compelled to try to reconnect with him. I wrote a bit about his wish that they would meet again.

A fellow named Jon Richards read the piece and alerted me that the boy is almost certainly 9-year-old Caleb Gold, a beaming lad whose muscular dystrophy places him often at Kaiser. Richards is the boyfriend of Caleb’s mom, Amy Gold.

Quickly, emails and photos flowed between Edmondson and Caleb’s family.

About now, everybody’s eager for a second encounter. Edmondson already has said he’d like to spend time with Caleb, perhaps to be of service to him.

Caleb meets Bob, take two, is set to happen Monday over bowls of frozen yogurt.

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RICH WILLIAMS ISN’T rich, dollar-wise. And the co-founder of Santa Rosa’s large, hugely popular Peggy Sue’s All-American Car Show & Cruise is seriously ailing.

So from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, George Fiori will host a benefit hot-rod show at his drive-in restaurant, Big Boy’s Buns and Burgers.

There’s no admission. Fiori will have ways to encourage donations and he’ll give to Rich and Peggy a share of the day’s counter sales.

And on June 13, folks wishing to help the Williamses make ends meet as Rich fights cancer will turn out for Cruise for Peggy Sue, a benefit car show at the Graton casino and a downtown Santa Rosa cruise.

Peggy: “We are so blessed.”

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THANKS, HENRY, and kudos to the Board of Supes for boosting a proposal to add the name of one of Sonoma County’s grandest men to that of Annadel State Park.

Henry Trione was far more than the primary force behind the creation of the jewel of a park. There are a thousand ways to complete the sentence, “Without him, (fill in blank) would not have happened.”

Speaking of Henry, it’s well known that even at age 94 he had a eye for women.

So, at the Rose Parade on Saturday, coordinator Judy Groverman Walker pinned a rose on the lapel of Henry’s wife, Eileen, and one on dapperly dressed elder son Vic Trione

“You mean I get a rose without a kiss?” Vic asked. Walker obliged with a peck on his cheek. Remarked a knowing someone off to the side, “Chip off the old block.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.